276 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



IMabch so, 1893. 



SPAWNING OF GAIRDNER'S TROUT. 



The largest river trout of North America is probably as 

 httle known as any other as far as its life history is con- 

 cerned It IS, therefore, with pleasure that we publish 

 the following recent information about the spawning of 

 the species, perhaps better recognized under the name of 

 steelhead salmon, which we owe to the courtesy of Hon 

 Marshall McDonald. 



One of the salmon and trout stations of the U. S. Fish 

 Commission is located at Fort Gaston, Cahfornia. in the 

 northern part of the State. This station is now tmder the 

 charge of Capt. W. Dougherty, of the U. S. Army. 

 Operations here are confined chiefly to Gairdner's trout 

 and the rainbow, both of which are excellent subjects 

 for ai'tificial propagation. 



Under date of Jan. 19, Capt. Dougherty wrote the Com- 

 missioner that the station would rely mainlv for its supply 

 of eggs upon the small hatchery at Redwood Creek, four- 

 teen miles distant. The Klamath River canneries, sisty- 

 fiye miles away, have exhausted the resotu-ces of Trinity 

 River, and that stream is no longer a source of spawning 

 fish. The ponds at Redwood, he believes, contain enough 

 breeders to furnish 300,000, and he expected that by the 

 first week in February 3,000,000 to 4.000,000 of eggs 

 would be obtained from salmon ascending the stream. 



We quote from his letter: "The small mountain 

 streams on this coast that empty directly into the ocean, 

 bank up their mouths by a sandbar that stretches entirely 

 across durmg the summer months. The water flows over 

 this in places to the depth of only a couple of inches, and 

 sometimes seeps through the bank or bar without flowing 

 until late in the fall. The salmon accumulate aromid the 

 outside of this bar in myriads, waiting for it to open 

 which it does only when the water from the first heavy 

 ram comes down and breaks it away, w^hen the fish at 

 once enter . and go directly to the spawning grounds, 

 traveling at the rate of about forty miles a day. These 

 fish are then nearly ripe for stripping, and that is the 

 opportune time for the first and unfailing supply of eggs. 



"Sergeant Boyce has produced a hybrid between the 

 steelhead salmon (female) and the rainbow trout (male). 

 The salmon was stripped on the 29th of March last and the 

 first eggs were hatched on the 28th of April. The product 

 is a beautifully brilliant and distinctively spotted variety, 

 very robust and gamy. About 500 have been kept in the 

 pond, about 1,500 having been turned out." 



Ten years ago Dr. Jordan stated that Gairdner's trout 

 spawns later than the salmon, and is found in the river, 

 spent, at the time of the spring salmon run. 'Mr. B. F. 

 Dowell has recorded its arrival in May in Applegate Creek', 

 Oregon, for the purpose of spawning. At the falls in Wil- 

 lamette River, at Oregon City, Mr. Wak'o F. Hubbard 

 found a few ripe females about the middle of May, 1892, 

 but the bulk of the fish passed over the obstructions alui 

 made their way to the upper waters. Dr. Bean has col- 

 lected female steelheads with the egg-s so ripe as to run 

 freely from the fish on June 10. 



Forest and Stream had an account last year of a steel- 

 head captured at Put-in-Bay, Lake Erie. If tliis fine 

 species can be made plentiful in that lake and others of 

 the system, it will prove a veritable boon to the public, 

 and there is apparently no reason why it should not do 

 well in the Great Lakes since it is frequentlj'- and perma- 

 nently land-locked in some parts of the West. 



ANGLING NOTES. 



A German Book. 

 I HAVE just received a very handsome copy of Herr von 

 dem Borne's "Handbook of Fishculture and Fishing," and 

 I say handsome, because it is printed on fine paper, 

 bound in half seal leather and contains nearly 600 illus- 

 trations, making it altogether a sumptuous volume. Of 

 living German fishculturists no one is held in higher 

 repute as an authority at home, nor more esteemed 

 abroad, for a knowledge of fish, fishing and fishculture 

 than Herr Max von dem Borne, Chamberlain to the 

 Emperor of Germany. Last year Herr von dem Borne 

 issued from the press of Paul Parey, Berlin, the pub- 

 lisher of all of his books, a volume upon angling, or 

 rather a new and enlarged edition of a book which had 

 passed through several previous editions, and I think I 

 said at the time (if I did not I meant to do so) that there 

 w6re many features of the book which might be adopted 

 m this comitry with profit, and not the least of them was 

 the credit the author gave to Forest and Stream for in- 

 formation obtained in its columns. There are features 

 of fishculture and fishing which might also be adopted in 

 this coun'try for the instruction of readers. The book is 

 divided i^ito four parts: The "Natural History and Life 

 of Fishes;" by Dr. Benecke, "Fishculture," by Max von 

 dem Borne, "Sea and Lake Fishing," by E. DaUmer, and 

 "Fresh-water Fishing," by Max von dem Borne. Dr. 

 Benecke makes a feature of describing and illustrating 

 the scales of such fishes as wear scales in a way that is 

 not done in any American ichtLyological work that I 

 know, although two English works treat the subject 

 briefly. The structure of fishes is minutely illustrated 

 and described, as well as the ovaries and the develop- 

 ment of the eggs. In fact the book is a mine of informa- 

 tion in detail, as the Germans are in the habit of doing 

 with what they undertake, from cover to cover. 



An English Book. 

 My thoughts seem to turn to books to-dav, and a glance 

 at my book shelves awaken memories that have slumbered 

 for a time, therefore I will gossip a bit about books. One 

 morning, years ago, I left the office of Forest and Stream 

 with the late T. C. Banks, at that time the business man- 

 ager of tlie paper, to meet Capt. Bogardus by appoint- 

 ment. When we found hun, the late Greene Smith was 

 with him, it being just after their curious pigeon match, 

 one yard boimdary, and we were soon joined by several 

 other sportsmen and went to make various caUs for 

 various purposes in the lower part of the city. We were 

 all in a well-known resort in Nassau street, when a seedy 

 and beery individual entered with a couple of books in his 

 hand which he ofi:ered to every one in turn, no one paying 

 any attention to him until he reached me. I read the 

 title, asked the price of one of the books, paid the money, 

 $1, and the man went out. Mr. Banks asked what I had 

 bought and I replied that it was a bound volume of the 

 English Sporting Magazine for 1794. The book was 

 passed around and I was offered five times the sum I 

 paid to part with it, but as every man had an oppoi-fcunity 

 to buy before I did I kept the book. A few years later 



a discussion arose in Forest and Stream concerning the 

 terms upon which Col. Thornton sold his famous dog 

 Dash. I think this discussion was started by "Canonicus," 

 if I mistake not, a grandson of "Fox Hlmting Evers." 

 Anyway "Canonicus" took an active part, but none of the 

 writers had the facts as they were, for I happened to fijid 

 m the old Sporting Magazine (it is not at hand now) the 

 detads of the transaction written by one who was a party 

 to the sale. The Magazine had contained a portrait, steel 

 plate, of the dog, but it was removed before it came into 

 my possession. 



An American Book. 

 I tried for some time to get a copy of the first American 

 edition of Walton's "Comjileat Angler," edited by Dr. G. 

 W. Bethune, and published in 1847. I wished the book 

 for a particular purpose, and I wished also to get a per- 

 fect copy. I advertised for it and placed an order with a 

 dealer in second-hand books without avail. One day I 

 received a book by express, which proved to be a copy of 

 the first edition of "Bethune's Walton, ' inscribed to me 

 on the title page "from 'his brother of the angle,' Alfred 

 M. Mayer." Prof. Mayer happened to see the book, 

 bought it and sent it to me, never knowing that I had 

 tried in vain to get it. 



A Book to Guide Collectors. 



Just ten years ago, when the last edition of "BibUotheca 

 Piscatoria," by Thomas Westwood and Thomas SatcheU, 

 came from the press, Mr. Westwood resided in Belgium, 

 and sent me a copy from Brussels. A w^eek or two later 

 Mr. SatcheU sent me a copy from London, and I noticed 

 that on the fly leaf, in addition to the presentation inscrip- 

 tion, he had written a brief history of the printing of the 

 book to "account for but not excuse the blunders that it 

 contained." He told that the printer was a man in small 

 way of business, setting all the type with his own hand, 

 and that each sheet was broken up before the succeeding 

 one was printed off, and consequently there was no going 

 back, etc. Having examined tlie fii-st copy thoroughly 

 there was no occasion for me to examine, closely, its fel- 

 low, and it was some little time before 1 discovered that 

 Mr. SatcheU, the dear old gentleman, liad corrected the 

 book from cover to cover with his pen, and had done the 

 work so neatly that in most cases it required sharp eyes to 

 discover the corrections, and in aU probability I possessed 

 a copy of the book tliat was unique, for if he corrected a 

 copy for his own use it was not likely that he had written 

 the history of the printing on the fly leaf. 



A Pioneer Boolf'. 

 One summer evening, a year or two "before the war," 

 Dick Birch, an Adirondack guide, came to a lumber camp 

 of my father's on the Cedar River with a sportsman that 

 he introduced as Dr. Todd. I was at the camp fishing at 

 the time and assumed that Dr. Todd was a doctor of med- 

 icine. That night the Doctor snored as I had never heard 

 a man snore before, and I crept over to his bed and 

 fastened a fish hook in his bed clothes and got into my 

 own bed with the fish line fastened to the hook. When 

 there seemed to be imminent danger of the shanty beino- 

 unroofed I pulled the line and tlie bed clothes came off 

 the guest. I kept this up untU the Doctor discovered that 

 he was hooked, and cut the line, but he said not a word. 

 A year or two later I attended the morning service in a 

 church in Pittsfield, Mass., and to my great astonishment 

 from behind the reading desk the never to be forgotten 

 face of Dr. Todd appeared to me, and for the first time I 

 knew that he was a doctor of divinity. During my school 

 days in that town I came to know Dr. Todd and to regret 

 that I had puUed the bed clothes off of him. Many years 

 after HaUock mentioned Dr. Todd as a pioneer writer 

 upon the Adirondacks in a book with tlie title "Long 

 Lalie," and this interested me to .search for the book. Mr. 

 F. R. Ryer of New York had an extensive Ubrary of books 

 upon angling and kindred subjects, and I asked him 

 about this book and he told me he had searched far and 

 wide for it but could not find it, and concluded from all 

 that he could learn that no such book had been published. 

 Other years passed, and one day in an old book shop Mr. 

 Ryer found two copies of Dr. Todd's "Long Lake" and 

 sent me one of them. It was published in 1845, and tlie 

 book relates to visits made to Long Lake ui 1841, '42, '43 

 and '44 by the author, when the region was indeed a wil- 

 derness, and I believe it to be the first printed volume re- 

 lating to that section Vk^ritten by a visitor. 



Second-Hand Books, 



I have never been a book collector in the sense that I 

 have been unhappy if I did not possess first editions and 

 certain bindings, as 1 Jut ve only desired to own books that 

 gave me certain iuforujatiou, or jjerhaps I should say that 

 I thought might give me information, for too often when 

 obtained the books do not give information of any value. 

 I wished to get a book devoted to artificial and natural 

 flies, and as it was long out of print was obliged to depend 

 upon picking it up somewhere, and just at that particular 

 time it was not to be picked up. I made a regidar search 

 of the old book shops in Boston, and about the last went 

 to the one under Old South. Taking a flaming torch, I 

 went to the MUk street side of the ceUar, which I knew 

 well, and almost the first thing I found a copy of the 

 book, but upon opening it I found that every plate was 

 gone, and it was the plates that I especially desired. I 

 was disappointed to come so near success, but as I put the 

 miitilated book back on the shelf I,noticed near it Pulman's 

 "Fly-Fishing for Trout,'' published by Longman in 1851, a 

 book that I had on my list and wished to possess almost as 

 much as the other. The copy of Pulman had belonged to 

 a gentleman in Glasgow, and bore his autograph and ad- 

 dress, and now it bears mine in addition. 



Other books on my shelves bring up other memories 

 and I am tempted to let my pen run on and on, but the 

 written pages warn me to cease; so one more and I am 

 done. Drivmg to the railway station with ]ilr. William 

 Blackmore, founder of the Blackmore Museum, Salesbury, 

 England, after he had made a visit to the family, he said 

 that he had written an inti-oductiou to a book in which he 

 treated the Indian question, which he wislied me to read. 

 Then turning to another book, just issued, he said it was 

 inaccurate as to its facts, and he would point them out in 

 marginal in a copy on the steamer and send it to me, 

 wdiich he did. In the haste of his departure I got the 

 books aU mixed up in my mind, but I knew there was 

 something about Indians that was not clear. I did not 

 wish to ask him and confess that mymemoiy was so poor, 

 and stiU I had a feeling that I had left something undone 

 not to my crecht. 



Several years after a, mutual friend ^vith whom Mr. 

 Blackmore had left tlie book for delivery to me, sent it to 

 me, after forgetting all about it for tuo years, and I foimd 

 it was "The Plains of the Great West," by Col. Dodge, 

 and then the conversation came back to me. 



A. N. Ghenet. 



PENNSYLVANIA ASSOCIATION. 



The annual reception given by the Pennsylvania Fish 

 Protective Association to the Commissioners of Fisheries 

 was held last Friday evening in the i^iisociation's rooms, 

 No. 1020 Arch street, PhUadelphia. Members and gaiests 

 present were: 



Messrs. M. G. SeUers, H. O. Wilbur, Robt. M. Mackay. 

 Peter J. Custer, W. L. Powell, Geo. T. Stokes, John A. 

 Shulze, J. Walker, Jr., E. C. Warg, M.D., Rev. Jacob 

 Todd, James M. Scovel, Frank W. Cornmau, M. Burk- 

 hardt, Thos. H. Stites, W. J. Sellers, Harrv W. Quick, 

 Cyrus S. Detre, Henry S. WUliams, Dr. 'Bushrod W. 

 James, R. F. Schwartz, Eugene Ufford, E. L. Datesman, 

 W. C. Henry, George E. Heyburn, J. B. Goentner, 

 Henry A. Ingram, Wm. C. Smitli, J. R. Sypher, C. T. 

 CoUaday, J. C. PoweU, C. H. Fitzgerald, Samuel E. Lan- 

 dis, Albert G. Green, Wm. Y. Carver, Thomas Massoy, 

 Geo. W. Morris, Harry Anderson, Chas. H. SiddaU, Thos. 

 T. Baltz, B. A. McDevitt, William A. Flanagan, D. Edgar 

 Kern, Charles L, Kurtz, J. Brewster McColluni. K. Pan- 

 coast, George W. Reader, Dr. W. W. McClure, Thomas B. 

 Harper, B. W. CampbeU, J. R. Thornton, Edwm Hagert, 

 Fred. W. Brown, W. H. Burkhardt, D. W. Johnson, H. 

 H. Treager, Wm. R. Nicholson, R. W. Fitzell, John T. 

 Neath, Alex. M. Wiggins, Geo. H. Hill, Geo. W! J. 

 S. Wise, Wm. GiUespie, Jr., Jacob K. Smith, M. H. Car- 

 penter, Mahlon K. Smith, Moses W. Van Gordon, Henry 

 C. Ford, Chas. B. Reynolds. 



In the absence of the president, Vice-President Fred'k 

 G. Brown welcomed the guests of the evening, and out- 

 lined the work and aims of the Asssociation as a protec- 

 tive organization. The society was founded by a few 

 anglers, who recognized that something must be done to 

 stay the w-anton dfstruction of the CornnionweaUb's iisli 

 food supply; but to the original conqxiny of anglers has 

 been added a large and increasing niemljeiship of public- 

 spirited citizens who are not distinctiv ely fishernieu, li)nt 

 who beUeve in fish protection and are earnestly working 

 to secure it. 



President Henry C. Ford, of the Fish Commission, read " 

 an address which was full of suggestiveness, revieAving 

 the work of the board and painting in glowing colors the 

 future of fish protection in Pennsylvania. Tlie address 

 is given in its full text below. 



Commissioner Powell referred to the destruction of fish 

 by culm or coal dust, which is run into the streams in 

 gi-eat quantities, and, as it settles, foriiis ;i, crust, killing 

 the insect life on which fishes live. He proijosed a com- 

 mission for considering tlie abuse and its remedy, the 

 commission to consist of two coal opcratoi's. two mem- 

 bers of the sanitary department and two of tJie Fisheries 

 Commissioners. 



Hon. Peter J. Christ, of Northumberland county, re- 

 ported that there was unprecedented interest in fish and 

 game legislation at Harrisburg in this session; and it 

 could not be foretold how the many bills would fare. 



Rev. Dr. Todd spoke humorously of the anglers who 

 are, in their after-dinner speeches, prone to extol the 

 beauties of nature. "It reminds me of Mrs. Parting- 

 ton," said he, "when she pooh-poohed the talk of the city 

 people who said that they gi-ew fat on tlie country air; it 

 might be the air, but she believed it was the 'wittles.' So 

 it may be the 'beauties of nature' that anglers seek, but 

 more likely it is fish. There is, to my eye, no 'beaxity of 

 natiue' quite equal to a speckled trout "safely landed on 

 the bank; no music of nature Uke the twanging of one's 

 line that teUs of a big fish fast." 



Mr. James M. Scovel, of Camden, i-elated the joys of 

 drum fishing at Anglesea. Hon. R. F. Schwartz, of Mon- 

 roe county, pertinently incjuired, if the bill forbidding sale 

 of trout should become a law, wliat the city anglers would 

 do, when they could no longer buy tlieir tish of tlie bare- 

 foot boys of his county. Ciias. B. Reynolds, of FOREiST 

 AND Streaji, referred to the fact that the history of the 

 Pennsylvania Association, like that of every other fish 

 protective society, showed that the anglers were always 

 the first to recognize the necessity of protecting the 

 waters, and had always been foremost in efforts to secure 

 such protection. 



Speaking for the Association, Mr. J. R. Sypher, of the 

 executive committee, invited the co-operation of all per- 

 sons interested in its \\ ork, avIi ether residents of Philadel- 

 pliia or of other counties or other States. The member- 

 ship fee for associates is $2 per annum; and it is the 

 earnest desire of the Philadelphia members that the 

 Association may have not so much the financial as the 

 moral support cif a large membership scattered throughout 

 all the counties of tlio State. The secretary is Mr. M. G. 

 SeUers, 1020 Arch street, PhUadelphia. 



President Ford's Address. 



While thanking you for the courtesies extended to us to- 

 night, the. Pennsylvania Commissioners of Fisheries desire 

 to give your Association and its guest.s some idea of the 

 work that has been accomplished, and the benefit of their 

 labors to Petinsylvauia. The Pennsylvania Fish Cummis- 

 siou has k(!X)t steadily in view the restoratiou of our rivers, 

 streams and lakes to their old-time fecundity, or in other 

 words, the increase and cheapening of the supplj- of food 

 lish for the people. When the Fish Commission has been 

 assailed, as it sometimes has been, the attack is due to 

 ignorance on the part ot its assailants of this great object. 

 _ The cry has sometiiues been raised that the Fish Commis- 

 sion is working in the interests of anglers and sportsmen; 

 that the chief production of its hatclieries is game fish, and 

 that its efforts to make and enforce restricti\'e laws are the 

 results of mandatory emanations from association* and clubs 

 to whom angling interests are dearer than the public welfare. 

 This charge has a certain influence ^vith the thoughtless who 

 do not trouble themselves to investi^rate the doings of the 

 Pennsylvania Fish Commission. 

 But let us see what arc the facts. 



In the past three years the Pennsylvania Commissioners 

 have deposited in the waters of the Commonwealth over 152^ 

 000,000 of fish. 



Of this number only 9,000,000 have been .strictly game fish, 

 leaving 143,000,000 of food fish supplied to our rivers and 

 lakes; shad, whiteflsh, pike-perch, all the commercial fish of 

 these waters. 



Before an exhibit like this the assertion that the Fish 

 Commission labors for the benefit of anyone class should 

 cease. 



And yet those who carp at the stocking our inland streams. 



